Next Saturday is the 70th anniversary of D-Day landings

Let’s take a moment to step away from the debate over whether or not Wal-Mart should be allowed to come to Swansboro or who will be targeted to be taxed next and focus on something more important: the 70th Anniversary of D-Day, which will take place on June 6. D-Day was a strategic gamble by the allies and proved a pivotal ev...

Let’s take a moment to step away from the debate over whether or not Wal-Mart should be allowed to come to Swansboro or who will be targeted to be taxed next and focus on something more important: the 70th Anniversary of D-Day, which will take place on June 6. D-Day was a strategic gamble by the allies and proved a pivotal event in World War II. Allied troops crossed the English Channel and stormed the beaches of Normandy while American and British airmen pounded German positions along the beach and targets inland.

It was the beginning of the end for Hitler’s 1,000-year Reich. In less than a year, Europe would be saved from the Nazis with Germany’s unconditional surrender, and all eyes turned toward the Pacific Theater where Japan’s ambitious bid for empire was crumbling and would soon follow its Axis partners in an unconditional surrender.

The men and women who fought World War II — some 16 million — from 1941 to 1945 earned the title of “America’s Greatest Generation” long after they served. If you had a relative who served, hopefully you know their stories and passed it along to the more recent generations.

My paternal grandfather, Joe Wolfe, entered service in 1942 as a 35-year-old solider and would see combat in the Philippines. He made it home in 1945 after Japan’s surrender and resumed his life with his wife and son — my father who was then 14 years old.

It wasn’t until I met my wife, Kathleen, in 1989 that I would meet someone who was at D-Day. Kathy’s father, Russell K. Bond, Sr. was a radio operator aboard a B-24 Liberator. One of Russell’s 40 missions involved a sortie delivering material to allied forces in France from his base in England. Russell’s airplane flew over the English Channel on June 6, 1944 — D-Day.

Russell was a crew member of the Carpetbaggers — a black-ops group attached to the 801st bomber group formed by the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner to today’s Central Intelligence Agency. The Carpetbaggers mission involved delivering supplies and spies via air to the French underground. It was very secret stuff. In fact, it was so hush-hush that Russell was sworn to secrecy until 1985. As if his crew needed more challenges on their dangerous missions, their B-24s were stripped of some of its armaments to allow more weight for cargo, and the plane flew with seven men. A conventional B-24 bomber had 10 crew members.

When asked, Russell is unsure where his mission on June 6th sent him and his six crewmen from their Harrington, England, base since they were kept in the dark about many of the details of their itinerary; but he believes it was somewhere over southwest France. What Bond does remember vividly even after 70 years is what he saw on his return flight to base.

Page 2 of 2 - “Looking down below, there was a tremendous amount of ships crossing the channel. It was unbelievable,” Bond said last week. The Liberator on which Bond was flying on D-Day was named “Starduster,” which flew at an altitude of 5,000 feet as she headed toward England. It wasn’t until after he landed that he and his crew learned that the invasion of Europe had begun.

President Herbert Hoover said: “Older men declare war but it is the youth that must fight and die.” That statement still holds true today. Bond was 19 years old when he entered the Army Air Corps and was 21 on D-Day. What’s remarkable about his service isn’t so much his age at the time of enlistment — many of his fellow warriors were born around the same time — but the fact that his eight brothers served in the same war. Russell’s mother, Elizabeth was photographed by the Milwaukee Sentinel standing behind a window of her Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, home with a cloth adorned with nine stars. By the grace of God, all nine Bond boys made it home alive.

We must never forget the sacrifice our men and women of the armed forces have unselfishly given this great country. But especially during this week, we should all pause to remember those who shed their blood on the beaches of Normandy and in the fields of France 70 years ago next Saturday.

I know my father in-law has never forgotten.

Russell and his wife Marilyn who have been married 66 years reside in Swansboro. Each morning after sunrise, Russell places his American flag in the holder attached to his garage.

Swansboro resident Mike McHugh is an advertising account executive with The Daily News. Readers can email him at mike.mchugh@jdnews.com.